Archive for September, 2012

South Korea has accepted the Australian barley industry supply chain measures document which will now offer industry a practical alternative to the requirement to screen all barley shipments from Australia.

The acceptance of this document by South Korea is a big win for the Australian barley industry, noting however that industry will need to ensure compliance with the industry practices as outlined in the document prepared by the Australian Grains Industry Market Access Forum (GIMAF) on behalf of the Australian barley industry.

The Supply chain measures document proposed that the requirement for freedom from live snails in Australian barley shipments will be done by a range of measures including:

Knowledge of the prevalence of, known as vineyard snail or common white snail, in grain received and stored in the Australian barley supply chain;

Barley will not be selected and allocated for shipment from areas where Cernuella virgata are prevalent; and

Verification of the barley selection process through sampling and testing that barley selected for export will meet importing country phytosanitary requirements.

Industry should be aware that South Korea has warned that detection of snails in Australian barley consignments will result in additional quarantine measures, such as imposing import restrictions. Therefore it is the responsibility of industry to follow the measures as proposed in the document and provide written assurance to DAFF that consignments are free of snails and they have met their responsibility within the management plan. South Korea has requested DAFF to endorse phytosanitary certificates with the additional declaration ‘the consignment was inspected and found free from Cernuella virgata’. DAFF will endorse phytosanitary certificates based upon exporters compliance with the supply chain measures as set out above, followed by DAFF inspection of the barley prior to export.

Exporters that do not comply with the industry best practices or are unable to provide written assurance will need to continue to screen barley for South Korea prior to DAFF phytosanitary inspection.